Factors Contributing to a Successful Instance of Elementary School Desegregation.

Howell, John F.

Given a successful instance of public school desegration, this study examines some of the factors that may have contributed to the integration effort. The initial section provides an examination of the historical and socio-political milieu building a context by which various change agents such as pupil mobility, prior experience in limited or voluntary desegregation, ethnic composition, parent participation, and relevant litigation efforts, can be better understood. The report also deals with the planning variables used in the development of the model. The final plan can be seen as a compromise between more idealistic and sociological concerns, and more realistics community concerns. The kindergarten, for one, remains a neighborhood unit and is not affected by the desegregation plan. Other basic concerns of the model are enlarged scool attendance areas and an altered grade structure. A detailed evaluation conducted over the first full year of desegregation provides an examination of attendance, an analysis of achievement scores, and the results of sociological surveys and attitude assessments administered to schools during that year. The composite picture from results obtained by these studies indicated that desegregation was successfully implemented. One of the factors contributing to the success of the September 1974 elementary school desegregation effort is that all of the secondary schools in this city were desegregated by September of 1968. (Author/AM)